A compound eye for a simple mobile robot

The Department of Cybernetics at the University of Reading has recently developed some simple mobile robots which can move around in an environment they perceive through simple ultrasonic sensors. Information from these sensors has allowed the robots to learn simple tasks, but more sensors are needed if the robots are to learn other tasks. Therefore a simple compound eye has been developed for the robots. This paper describes how such an eye linked to a simple weightless neural network can be used to give an estimate of position within a complex environment. Such information could be used by the robot to generate more intricate behaviours.